Use the Forum add-on

How does the forum work on emyspot

By default, all forum visitors have access to reading messages and writing is available. All messages are instantly published and posted on your site as well. Yet there should always be a moderator for the messages be it yourself or add another webmaster to moderate. Moderation of messages is necessary to ensure the quality of your forum and ensure that your forum stays spam free and troll free.

Without a subscription to the VersionPLUS offer the moderation of the messages can only be done by a webmaster and is done from the from the manager.
If you benefit from the VersionPLUS subscription you can choose to continue moderation of the messages from the manager, but you also have the possibility to set up a member space and then define a group of members as moderators of the forum giving them access. Editing, deleting, and closing topics for discussion. It is also possible within the member area to restrict the writing and/or reading of messages to registered and connected members only.

The presence of the breadcrumb trail in your site is strongly suggested so that the user can locate themselves in your forum.

Order of your discussion threads

It is important to structure the topics of discussion from the outset by grouping them by theme, this contributes to a better understanding of the functioning of the forum and makes it easier to read the exchanges.

For this it is necessary to create categories in the manager in Add-ons > Forum > Threads and click on the button New category.

You can add more as needed.

The photo shows the forum tree:

The left frame shows categories and possible subcategories (A).
The right frame lists discussion topics in a category. (B).

How this looks on your website

Look at how new comments and exchanges are displayed on the forum:

Category> Event Subcategory> Discussion Topic> Messages

Thus on the page of a category, there is a summarized table listing the possible sub-categories as well as the number of threads, the total number of messages, and a link to the last posted message.

The photo shows:

Breadcrumb trail(1).
The name of the category(2).
The list of topics in this category with a link on each to access the list of messages exchanged (3).
The total number of exchanges (4).
A link to the last post posted in the topic (5).

In the category of the discussion, at the bottom, there is an-easy-to-use form to open a new topic for discussion.

Open the conversation threads

The topics of discussion of your forum open from the site directly by those who choose, or that you have allowed access to. By default, anyone can consult your forums and comment.

Without a subscription to the VersionPLUS version, the opening of the discussion topics is possible for anyone visiting your site. If you benefit from the VersionPLUS offer, you can keep open the topics, restrict all, or part of the forum to registered members and connected to your site.

Moderate messages

Depending on whether you are a site administrator or a moderator, you have different options for moderating the forum detailed in the table below.

	Site admin (via the manager) With a Free or Individual Version	Site moderator (via the site) With a Version PRO or a higher range* subscription
Discussion threads
Edit a thread
Move a thread
Unpublish a thread
Delete a thread
Close a thread
Thread messages
Edit
Delete

*A higher range subscription: Business or E-commerce

Writing messages

Add an image with bbcode

It is possible to insert images in the messages posted in the forum, on the other hand the Internet user will have to anticipate by ensuring the image has a file address.

Indeed, it will have to integrate the URL of the previously hosted image using the image button of the form.

The URL(3) must be inserted into the bbcode tags (2) inserted by the button (1).

Go further with widgets

Three widgets are available to promote your forum. They can be displayed in pages of your site (via the Pages module) or in the vertical menu by setting them from Settings > Menus:

Recent forum posts
Lists the last x discussion topics that have been answered
List of forum categories: List the categories or subcategories of the forum from a given category, in case the forum has several levels
Search engine : Browse categories, topics, messages to search for entered terms

Consult the Forum tutorials

How to use the forum add-on

Here are the basics to using the forum add-on. Use this tutorial to guide you through enabling the forum comments, moderation and images.

Insert an image into a forum message

To add an image to the forum add-on you will use bbcode. The image must already contain a file address, read more for help.

Creating members-only website content

Create and manage restricted site content with site member accounts. Choose which parts of your website content can be viewed by everyone or which parts are restricted.